


Words Speak Louder Than Feelings

by misura



Category: In Other Lands | The Turn of the Story - Sarah Rees Brennan
Genre: Multi, Yuletide Treat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:20:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21847231
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/misura/pseuds/misura
Summary: Elliot learns things theharddifficult way.
Relationships: Golden/Elliot Schafer/Serene/Luke Sunborn
Comments: 6
Kudos: 35
Collections: Yuletide 2019





	Words Speak Louder Than Feelings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [1001paperboxes](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1001paperboxes/gifts).



"How's this?" Golden asked, and Elliot said, "Terrible," because for the past year or so, the only person who'd asked him that question had been Luke, who did not need Elliot to tell him that he was some sort of sex god - which Luke wasn't, obviously, especially with how hot he looked and the wings and everything.

Golden, not being Luke, said, "Oh," and immediately stopped what he'd been doing, sounding more than a little upset. "You - I'm so sorry. I thought - but obviously, I was wrong. I deeply apologize."

"Er," Elliot said.

"Sometimes Elliot doesn't mean what he says," Luke said, suppressing a yawn. He looked, Elliot could not help but think, extremely well-fucked. By someone not Elliot.

Elliot thought that he should have some feelings about that, what with Luke being sort of his boyfriend now, more or less, but he'd been there while it happened, and it had all looked rather awesome and not like something he wanted to risk missing out on by saying something regrettable.

"Which is very silly, obviously, as it is well known a gentleman's feelings are easily wounded," Serene said. She'd been involved in some of the aforementioned fucking, which had made Elliot wonder why there hadn't been any of that happening when she and he had been dating.

He suspected the answer to that question was currently giving him wounded looks.

"Luke's fine with it," he said, not quite liking how defensive he sounded. "His feelings are very hard to wound. He's tough."

"I'm tough, too." Golden raised his chin. "But I see no reason why that should mean putting up with people making hurtful comments."

"I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to call it 'hurtful'," Elliot said. He felt that under normal circumstances, this would have been the moment when Luke would have leaped to his defense, being a good boyfriend, but at a glance, Luke was too busy struggling to keep his eyes open to be of any use, which was just typical. "That is to say," he amended, in an attempt to be diplomatic, "I didn't mean my comment to be hurtful. I was surprised by the question, that's all."

Golden didn't look very convinced, though Elliot liked to think he was softening a bit. "It's not just ladies who need to be considerate of a gentleman's feelings and ensure that they are comfortable with what is happening. Us gentlemen have a responsibility, too, and it does no one any good if you go around saying things that aren't true."

Elliot felt that it might be a bit much to make him personally responsible for the quality of the sex life of gentlemen everywhere, elvish and human alike. "I'm sorry?" he tried.

Luke's eyes flew open. Elliot mentally scowled at him.

"And?" Golden prompted. He was definitely looking friendlier now, which made Elliot inclined to tread carefully, since it looked like he had something to lose again, and it would be just like Luke to make him mess it all up again.

"And on second thought, I very much enjoyed what you were doing and I would very much like you to start doing it again?" Elliot said, deciding to go for broke.

Golden beamed at him. It wasn't quite as annoying as when Luke did it, but Elliot felt it might get there one day.

"As Elliot's friend, and his boyfriend's swordsister, may I second that request?" Serene said. "You gentlemen do need your sleep, after all, and I would like to get you to myself for a while as well, my dove."

Golden smiled at her. "Of course, my sweet. And may I call on you to aid me in teaching Elliot some proper manners at some future point in time? It does not reflect well on you at all to be keeping company with someone so poor at expressing his feelings."

"Hey!" Elliot said, even if his imagination seemed capable of coming up with some very creative and improbably sexy teaching methods, none of which Golden was likely to employ.

"Luke really does seem to like it, and he is my swordsister," Serene said, looking dubious. She sounded apologetic. "I would not want to interfere with my swordsister's happiness."

"Actually," Luke said, like a traitor.

"Hey!" Elliot said, even though he hated to repeat himself.

"Oh well, we can discuss that later," Golden said. "For the moment, I suppose I can go back to what I was doing before we got distracted." He gave Elliot an expectant look.

Elliot looked back. With Luke, it would have been a cool, 'what are you looking at, loser?' sort of look, which Luke would know really meant 'what are you looking at, loser?' (except, all right, not really).

With Serene, it would have been an adoring, 'I adore you and wish to worship at the altar of your awesomeness in a sexy and sexual kind of way' sort of look, which Serene would probably assume to mean 'I am a saucy minx and a hussy and I would like us to be friends'.

This thing with Golden was still rather new. Elliot had been getting to know him a bit better, and so far, he'd seen plenty of things to like about Golden, while not having seen a great many reasons for Golden to like him back.

On the other hand, people who didn't like you generally didn't offer to have sex with you - unless under special circumstances, which didn't seem to be the case here.

"Um," Ellio said. "Sorry and I won't do it again? To you, that is," he added quickly.

Golden huffed a laugh. "I was waiting for a 'please', actually, but I suppose that will do, too. Now, please pay attention. I think it will be very nice if tomorrow night, we can switch things up a bit and you can do this for Luke, or he for you."

Elliot wondered if it were possible to die of having too much sex. In this moment, it didn't sound like a bad way to go, but he did rather have a lot of plans for the future, so it would be very inconvenient to die before his time, no matter how pleasantly.


End file.
